cougarguard.com — unofficial BYU Cougars / LDS sports, football, basketball forum and message board - View Single Post - The internal-service model of LDS worship

MikeWaters · 12-15-2008, 03:11 PM

If you are an active member of this church, you will find that most of the energy and time spent in your activity will be related to service towards fellow members. The examples are voluminous: directing activities for the children of members through YM, YW, primary. Hometeaching. Visiting teaching. Counseling as a Bishop or counselor. Hometeaching. Moving families in or out. Planning social activities for members on the cheap. Giving lessons from a manual that has been prepared in SLC. Preparing meals for the ill or post-partum. Etc.

The question that is not addressed is this: what are we NOT doing?

Well for one, we are not doing external service. Or perhaps more accurately, we don't do much of it, and when it does happen it is pretty haphazard and has no local control. Versus other Christian congregations, where some kind of service outreach ministry may be a huge part of where it spends its time and efforts--everything from local homelessness to medical missions to the 3rd world.

Another thing we don't do in any serious way: support intellectual growth among members. This may be a point of argument for some, but if you can look at the curricula that the church puts out, all the way from primary, to Sunday School, to Gospel Doctrine, Seminary, and Institute and tell me that it supports intellectual growth in any kind of ambitious way, then we are really seeing the world differently. It all has a narrow focus. The church is true. It is led by prophets of God. Always has been, always will. Try to be a good person, as the modern prophets have been.

A deeper approach to all of this does take place in the church, but when it does, it is against the tide. It is someone who looks at the lesson and says "I'm not going to teach it like this." Yesterday in our GD lesson, there was an argument/discussion about whether the Jaredites would be given "another chance" to accept the gospel. I wanted to gouge out my eyes.

So coming full circle here in this post, I ask the question: is this internal-service model of LDS worship enough? Is it a compelling enriching model? Is it the best thing we can do?

It's not like the church hasn't tweaked its mode of worship and its focus of worship in the past. Given the poor conversion rates in the United States, I think there has to be some hand-wringing going on. Perhaps the focus will continue to be on the unfaithfulness of the missionaries and the members as the root cause of this downturn in conversions. Or how wicked the world is.

The last place we will probably look is in how we worship. That much, I am pretty certain of.

12-15-2008, 03:11 PM	#1
MikeWaters Demiurge Join Date: Aug 2005 Posts: 36,365	The internal-service model of LDS worship If you are an active member of this church, you will find that most of the energy and time spent in your activity will be related to service towards fellow members. The examples are voluminous: directing activities for the children of members through YM, YW, primary. Hometeaching. Visiting teaching. Counseling as a Bishop or counselor. Hometeaching. Moving families in or out. Planning social activities for members on the cheap. Giving lessons from a manual that has been prepared in SLC. Preparing meals for the ill or post-partum. Etc. The question that is not addressed is this: what are we NOT doing? Well for one, we are not doing external service. Or perhaps more accurately, we don't do much of it, and when it does happen it is pretty haphazard and has no local control. Versus other Christian congregations, where some kind of service outreach ministry may be a huge part of where it spends its time and efforts--everything from local homelessness to medical missions to the 3rd world. Another thing we don't do in any serious way: support intellectual growth among members. This may be a point of argument for some, but if you can look at the curricula that the church puts out, all the way from primary, to Sunday School, to Gospel Doctrine, Seminary, and Institute and tell me that it supports intellectual growth in any kind of ambitious way, then we are really seeing the world differently. It all has a narrow focus. The church is true. It is led by prophets of God. Always has been, always will. Try to be a good person, as the modern prophets have been. A deeper approach to all of this does take place in the church, but when it does, it is against the tide. It is someone who looks at the lesson and says "I'm not going to teach it like this." Yesterday in our GD lesson, there was an argument/discussion about whether the Jaredites would be given "another chance" to accept the gospel. I wanted to gouge out my eyes. So coming full circle here in this post, I ask the question: is this internal-service model of LDS worship enough? Is it a compelling enriching model? Is it the best thing we can do? It's not like the church hasn't tweaked its mode of worship and its focus of worship in the past. Given the poor conversion rates in the United States, I think there has to be some hand-wringing going on. Perhaps the focus will continue to be on the unfaithfulness of the missionaries and the members as the root cause of this downturn in conversions. Or how wicked the world is. The last place we will probably look is in how we worship. That much, I am pretty certain of.